


Apartment-Hunting

by spinninginfinity



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 02:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3878176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinninginfinity/pseuds/spinninginfinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the 1998 election, Donna searches for a place to live.</p><p>
  <i>‘I’m never going to find a place. When Margaret gets tired of me crashing on her sofa I’m just going to live under your desk. Can you make sure you have a comfortable-ish carpet?’</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apartment-Hunting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a Tumblr meme, prompt: “You did all of this for me?”

‘Hey,’ Josh says, glancing up as Donna comes through the door of his OEOB office. ‘How was the guy?’

She slumps heavily into the chair in front of his desk and he looks up at her properly. ‘That bad, huh?’ he asks.

‘He wanted to make sure I was okay with living with his seven pet cactuses.’

‘Oh.’ He pauses. ‘Were you?’

‘No!’ she snaps. ‘They had names! They had their own room! They were not, by the way, small cactuses!’

‘Their own room, though; that’s not so bad.’

‘It was the second bedroom,’ Donna says darkly. ‘I’d be the new arrival, so it turns out I’d be the one on the camp bed in the living room.’

‘At least that’s better than the herbal plant lady you met last week,’ Josh points out.

‘“Herbal plants.” You’re so sweet.’ 

‘Thanks.’

Donna rests her forehead on his list of rejected candidates for Secretary of Commerce. ‘I’m never going to find a place. When Margaret gets tired of me crashing on her sofa I’m just going to live under your desk. Can you make sure you have a comfortable-ish carpet?’

‘If Margaret needs you out, you can stay at mine until you find somewhere,’ he says.

‘Yeah?’ She sits up again. ‘How soon are you going to get sick of me?’

‘I’m not going to get sick of you, and anyway, it won’t be long before you find a place that suits you—’

‘I’ve looked at a different apartment every other day for three weeks!’ she bursts out.

Josh blinks, taken aback. ‘Well, I know that, but—’

‘I’m sorry,’ she says, pressing the heels of her hands over her eyes, her words coming out choked and higher than usual. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you; it’s just that this is so new and so scary and I don’t know where’s nice or safe and I don’t know anybody I can move in with and I know I haven’t been looking that long but every place I’ve seen has been so awful—’

‘Hey, okay. Donna. Look at me.’ 

She lowers her hands and he reaches across the desk and wraps his hand loosely over her wrist. ‘We’ll find you somewhere,’ he promises. ‘Okay? And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. You can stay with me for as much time as you need.’

Donna watches his fingers rub over her freckled skin and then gives him a tremulous smile. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah. And hey, I haven’t really been helping you look; I could be doing more.’

‘No, come on.’ She shakes her head, pulling her arm gently from his grip. ‘You don’t have time to help me apartment-hunt; _I_ barely have time to apartment-hunt.’

‘I can make time,’ he insists. ‘We’ll do it in the evenings while we cook proper meals with the real groceries I’m going to buy in honor of your staying with me.’

Donna gives him a proper smile for the first time since she walked into his office. ‘You really are sweet, Josh. What do you want for lunch?’

***

‘Donna!’

‘Don’t shout,’ she responds automatically.

‘Come here a sec!’

‘Say “please”,’ she calls.

To her surprise, he appears in his office doorway, looking happier than she’s seen him since they won. ‘Please,’ he says, with a barely-contained smile, ‘come into my office for a moment and look at what I have to show you.’

‘You’re not going to ask me to go somewhere in disguise again, are you?’ she asks suspiciously, standing and following him into his office. ‘I really thought that kind of dedicated hassling of congressional representatives would only happen after we got into office.’

‘It’s never too early to hassle Congress, but no, it’s not that.’ Josh turns to face her, grinning. ‘I found you an apartment.’ He slides a piece of paper across the desk to her, a glossy torn-out page from a real estate brochure. ‘It’s a nice neighborhood, two bedrooms, the bathtub is enormous—CJ checked, it’s not just the photograph. And the journey to work is easy—’

‘What do you mean, “CJ checked”?’ Donna interrupts.

‘I took her with me. Thought you’d like a more discerning eye. She gave her full approval.’ Josh looks pleased with himself. ‘I did well, I think.’

‘Josh.’ She shakes her head, running her fingers across the picture of the kitchen. It’s beautifully done out in honey-colored wood and cream paint, and there’s an island like the one her parents have. ‘This is… really nice of you, but there’s no way I can afford this.’

‘Not by yourself, no, which is why we found you a roommate.’

‘You did what?’

‘She’s called Sophie.’ Josh bounces on his toes a bit, looking giddy. ‘She and Carol have been friends for years, and she’s just been given notice on her old place, so she’s looking for somewhere new as soon as possible. She’s your age, works on the Hill. And I made sure that she’s a Democrat and that she has a good sense of humor and that she’s not weird and possessive about fridge space—I know you hate that—and that she does her dishes.’

‘Josh…’

‘And that there’ll be no plant-based inconveniences for you to contend with; I made absolutely sure of that. Two cats, though. I hope that’s okay. You like cats, right?’

Donna looks at him, stuck for words. Josh’s smile fades.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I know it was… kind of presumptuous, but I saw it and it looked perfect for you, and I thought it would be a nice surprise. You don’t have to take it. Or the roommate, though I really think you’ll get along. We can keep looking.’

‘You did all this for me?’ she asks softly.

‘Uh… yeah.’ He scratches at his chin. ‘It’s really not a big deal. All this, I mean; it was really just a few phone calls and a stroke of good luck with Carol’s friend and I guess I had to offer to take some stuff off of CJ’s plate so she could—’

He breaks off as Donna puts her arms around him.

‘Thank you,’ she mumbles into his ear.

‘You wouldn’t’ve wanted to live with me anyway,’ he says, squeezing her back.

‘Oh,’ she says, ‘I don’t think it would have been so bad.’

He hugs her a moment longer and then breaks away, tapping his finger against the paper on his desk. ‘You should call about the place.’

She smiles. ‘I’m still going to go and buy you real groceries.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! As ever, feedback is very welcome and appreciated!


End file.
